In this talk to the Sussex Marxist Society, given on the 100th anniversary of the beginning of World War One, Alan Woods – author of “Bolshevism: the Road to Revolution” and “Reformism or Revolution” – analyses the causes behind the “Great War” and discusses the role of imperialism within global capitalism today.
The past year has undoubtedly been the most successful yet for the Marxists in Britain. The potential, however, is far greater, but we do not have the resources required to be able to adequately follow up all the opportunities present. Please donate at this festive and revolutionary time of year to help spread the ideas of Marxism!
Behind the gloss of various superficial measures introduced by George Osborne in his 2014 Autumn Statement on Wednesday 3rd December lay a far grimmer message for the vast majority of ordinary people. The real story of Osborne’s statement is the warning of what lies ahead after the next election: years more of austerity and deep, savage cuts.
If you are looking for a good Christmas present this year, you could do a lot worse than Dave Sinclair’s book of photographs, ‘Liverpool in the 1980s’. If a good photograph tells a story, then this book covering his photography in those years is a volume of stories, providing evocative images of the class struggle in Thatcher’s Britain.
A major new study by the London School of Economics (LSE) has confirmed what many have already suspected – that Tory tax measures have resulted in a “significant” transfer of wealth from the poorest sections of society to the richest. Under the Tories, the 1% have avoided any pain caused by the recession, and it is ordinary people who have had to pay for the crisis.
Across Europe, support for the traditional parties of bourgeois democracy has collapsed. The crisis of capitalism has exposed the rottenness of the mainstream parties, as they carry out the cuts on behalf of the bosses and bankers. As a result, in Britain, there is growing force on the electoral plane that is partially reflecting the radicalisation in society: the Green Party.
The grim fate awaiting us after the next election in 2015 has been exposed by the revelation that the Treasury, under orders from the Tories, has called on senior civil servants to start drawing up a hit list of an extra £25-30 billion pounds worth of public spending cuts to be implemented over the period April 2016 to March 2018. Only socialist policies can stop these cuts!
United We Stand tells the story of the 1972 building workers’ strike and the conspiracy trial that followed, resulting in the imprisonment of three building workers with Des Warren receiving the harshest sentence of three years. However, the most famous of these prisoners is the now actor Ricky Tomlinson, who has collaborated with actor/playwright Neil Gore to tell this story.
The violent abduction and disappearance of 43 students in the state of Guerrero in September has plunged Mexico into a deep social and political crisis. The case of the Ayotzinapa students has brought the masses onto the streets and convulsed the presidency of Enrique Peña Nieto. Alan Woods analyses the latest developments in Mexico, which are pregnant with revolutionary implications.
A revolutionary situation is currently spreading across West Africa. Over the last few days and weeks, big movements of the masses have shaken the regimes of Togo and Gabon to their foundations. It is clear that these are not isolated events. Rather, it is part of a revolutionary wave which has the potential to engulf the entire region.
It is now seven weeks since the disappearance and kidnapping of 43 students in Ayotzinapa, Mexico. The brutal incident acted to open up a wave of mass protests which continues to grow and spread throughout Mexico. The Marxist Student Federation here in Britain has energetically participated in solidarity action with the Mexican students and their struggle.
For the second time in six weeks, NHS workers staged a four-hour strike from 7am to 11am on November 24th. They are angry because their already low pay is being eroded even more due to government cuts. Darrall Cozens, President of the Coventry TUC, comments how, under capitalism, it is those such as the low paid NHS workers who will pay the price of a crisis that they did not cause.